But Heroes Seek Release
by Ember Nickel
Summary: Diversionary tactics, impromptu rescue missions, and maybe even life on Mars. Or, just another day in the lives of Team Two. (Yuletide 2014: follow-up to Book 51.)


For LadyoftheShield, who wanted something about Marco, Tobias, Ax, and their bond near the end of the war. Thanks to woggy for looking this over!

* * *

><p>My name is Marco. And I look pretty good for being legally dead.<p>

I'd slept okay, as well as I could in the valley. The valley: that was where we were all holed up these days. Our growing—but still hopelessly outnumbered—resistance movement, and me. And our families. My dad's an engineer, or at least he used to be. It hadn't been that long ago that he'd gotten remarried to my algebra teacher. Nerds.

I guess that made her my stepmom, technically. Like a lot of kids whose parents have remarried, I split time for a while. Some nights at my dad's new place. Others with...well, in my case, Ax and Tobias. Ax is a blue, four-hoofed, four-eyed alien. Tobias is a red-tailed hawk. Technically, they're uncle and nephew.

Yeah. Not the longest story I could tell you about our war, and not the scariest, by a longshot. It's been a rough few years.

With the situation on Earth the way it is, there wasn't really space or time for them to keep hiding, in the woods behind Cassie's barn. Not even Cassie's parents had stayed there. Which brought them, brought all of us, back to the valley.

"What's new?" I nodded, walking up to where Ax was grazing. He'd been complaining about how the grass didn't taste quite right. I wasn't sure whether he was more privately resentful about having to graze food tailored by a distant Ellimist, or catered to Hork-Bajir biome specifications, or what. He'd adapted to the natural Earth grasses well enough, after all. And if there's one thing I know about my man Ax, it's that he likes to eat.

‹I was having a very engaging conversation with your father.› I must have given a start—my _dad_? He didn't have strategy to discuss with my mom? Because he went on, ‹Not concerning the war. He merely enjoys discussing the possibility of non-threatening alien life.›

That was probably good. Ax can be a little...dismissive when it comes to human scientific contributions. It's an Andalite thing, but I'm not really sure where he stands with respect to the rest of his species' military at present, and it's kind of a touchy subject. If he thought Dad was interesting enough to keep up a conversation with, I figured it was for the best. "Great. I'm sure we'd all be glad for some other species out there not trying to kill us."

‹Not making much of an impact on your solar system as a whole.›

"Our solar system?"

‹What do you—To put it another way. Prior to recent announcements—› That was a nice way of putting it. Our attempts at getting the governor to call attention to the invasion of Earth had dragged us across the state and almost wrecked multiple vehicles, to say nothing of our usual near-misses. ‹What did most humans believe about life on Mars?›

"Mars?" I blinked. "There aren't any Martians with, you know, spaceships and that kind of thing. Except in comic books. But yeah, we thought there were just ancient fossils."

‹_Just_ fossils?› Tobias circled downwards, joining us.

"Not full-blown little green men."

‹Most people didn't even think there were fossils, is what he means. Right, Ax?›

‹I had not known, either way. For obvious reasons, it would be impractical for me to have surveyed the general population.›

"Wait, hold up," I said. No wonder my dad had gotten excited. "So are there Martians or aren't there? Fossils, I mean."

‹No,› said Ax, ‹Not to my knowledge.›

‹Of course not!› Tobias broke in. ‹Come on, Marco. You'd have learned about them in school.›

"How should I know? Ax, you didn't learn about Mars? I thought you had all kinds of knowledge about our solar system."

‹Let me guess, he wasn't paying attention in class that day.›

‹There are many planets where the only organisms have long-since gone extinct,› Ax elaborated. ‹It's hardly worth our attention to enumerate them all.›

"Okay. Cool. One less planet we have to worry about defending."

‹This can't actually be news to you?› Tobias went on.

"Shut up."

‹Hey, it's cool. We have more important things to deal with.›

"No, I just...I thought everyone knew. Assumed. My dad did."

‹Your dad's into UFOs?›

"Not UFOs! Fossils can't fly spaceships!"

‹That would indeed take extraordinary navigational power,› said Ax, ‹something I find unlikely with the current state of technology in your sector.›

"Just...he brought home books from the library, after a while. People making guesses, trying to figure out how likely it was that life would develop on some other planets. If...if we weren't anywhere special, if we didn't really have anything going for us, then sure, maybe Mars was just a good a place for a species to develop. Why not?"

‹That's kind of a cold way to think about it,› said Tobias.

"I didn't care enough, when he was trying to explain it to me. But even then, it was _something_ for us to talk about."

‹With better rovers, humans would be quite close to finding at least some evidence of how recently liquid water might have been present on the surface,› said Ax. ‹Even without the Zero-Space advances.›

Well, it wasn't like the situation on Mars was anything like a pressing concern. "How'd he take it?"

‹Your father?›

"Yeah. He wasn't too disappointed...to find out he'd been wrong?"

‹Hardly. I think he is far more curious about my anatomy. I've already given Walter and Michelle a demonstration of how I eat, they find it very absorbing to view. I have also offered both of them, as well as your father, a chance to watch me eat in human morph if they can provide me with some new and stimulating human foods, but this offer strikes them as less interesting.›

‹Can't imagine why,› Tobias muttered.

"Well, as long as he's enjoying himself," I said. A lot had changed from those dark afternoons in our house, Dad peering over a book and calling out equations every so often as I burned through my own homework across the couch. He'd even found my mom again, in spite of everything. One way or another, our solar system was much busier than we'd expected.

‹I take it that means you're finished with breakfast?› Tobias asked.

‹Yes,› said Ax. ‹Unless you have acquired some human food?›

‹No. But I think we're on tap.›

Sure enough, he'd spotted Jake from a distance, walking over to us slowly. For a brief moment, I wondered if it would ever be faster to morph bird and fly across the valley to communicate with people, or just to thought-speak them. A sign of how weird our strategizing had become.

"What's up?" I called.

Jake hesitated. "Do you guys have plans for today?"

"Plans? Sure, Ax just downloaded some excellent video games. I was planning to teach him how to hit a curveball."

"Other than that," Jake sighed.

‹Even if I had other plans, if you have an assignment for us, I'm sure we will all do our best to carry it out,› Ax said.

"I...I don't know, at this point. Whether it'd be worth the time."

‹Get the group together?› Tobias asked. ‹Put it to a vote?›

"No. If anyone can do it, it—it has to be you three. Unfortunately."

‹I think you will find we carried ourselves well during the incident outside the governor's office,› said Ax. ‹While there may have been some unintended consequences for other civilians, the escalation of force was the Yeerks' decision.›

"No. You guys did it, you got her to spread the word. That's...actually the problem."

"The problem?" I asked. "We've been trying to mobilize the population for years!"

‹We had to warn our people. That was what Elfangor told us, that first night,› Tobias added. ‹Maybe we should have done things differently. How much could we have avoided...›

"How soon would have it turned into all-out war?" I pointed out. "We can't know. If Jake has instructions for us, I'm still ready to hear them."

Jake glared. "It's the governor. She's been...well, not deposed, exactly, but kicked out of office. Sent to rehab, or something. She doesn't control the National Guard, at this point."

"So what, we fly _back_ up the length of the state to bust her out?" I could see where his hesitancy came from—even if we'd just about pulled it off once, sending away half of the core team to rehash a governmental figurehead could feel like treading water, at best.

"You wouldn't have to. From what we've figured out—Erica's team and some of the Chee have been informing us—the rehab center is down here, by all the other celebrities. Nice little day trip." He wasn't even bothering to laugh at his own stupid jokes. That was never a good sign.

‹Can Erica's team handle it by themselves?› Tobias asked. ‹Or is it not that high-priority?›

‹Erica is a worthy leader,› said Ax, ‹but her experience is very limited.›

I sighed. Erica worked well with her comrades, and the other auxiliaries seemed to respect her, but Ax still got a little weirded out at the idea of deferring to some of the newcomers. We hoped it was just her inexperience, and not the disabilities she'd lived with for years, that gave him pause, but there was never a good way to bring it up. "Yeah, so. Say we even do break the governor out; what's next? Bring her back up here? Or, no, keep her with the national guard. Larsen and the others can't have been overrun yet, we'd know."

"You'd split up, I think. They handle the transportation—acquire a vehicle, make sure the path is clear to link up with the guard. You three...make sure the Yeerks don't interfere. If that's what you decide on."

‹It's not our decision to make,› said Tobias. ‹We got lucky last time, we can do it again, but I can't decide on my own.›

"You call that _luck_?" I asked.

‹I mean, it could have been worse.›

"That was all skill, dude. Me and my morphs."

‹And my driving skills, don't forget those.›

"Yeah, yeah. Look..." I trailed off, looking from Jake to Ax and back. What had Ax called her? A great leader, even when the rest of us were too busy with fighting off an invasion to remember our governor's name or gender. A great leader could still inspire the population. Even the aliens among us.

Great leaders were hard to come by.

"I'm in for another try," I said. "And I'll even let Erica drive."

The sacrifices we make for our friends.

Unlike our recent venture, there was no need to go duck. We'd figured out directions, and our normal bird morphs would be good enough, at least to get close. ‹This is always the weirdest part,› Tobias complained, as we made our way out of the valley.

‹What?› I asked. Not flying, surely.

‹The valley. One minute it's there behind you, and the next—I need real landmarks to navigate by, you know? Not these weird Ellimist illusions.›

‹Are you familiar with the route?› Ax rose higher into the air, looking for a thermal so we could start coasting. ‹I don't recall any landmarks along the way.›

‹You know what I mean.›

‹Oh. In that case, assuming we have found our direction, Marco, may I ask you something?›

‹Sure,› I said, still casting my gaze over the terrain below in case something stood out. Or in case I needed to change the subject.

‹When did your governor accede to power?›

‹What?›

‹How did she take office?› Ax continued.

‹Er, a couple years ago, I think. There would have been an election.›

‹Whatever became of the previous governor?›

‹Ax, I don't really pay attention. We've got other stuff to do, and we're not old enough to vote yet.›

‹I thought he was trying to become the president of the entire country. When Prince Jake was briefly infested...›

‹That's right!› Tobias cut in. ‹You guys had to go rescue him, I couldn't come. I think he did try to run for president, but he lost in the primary, or something? I don't remember.›

‹Was it not noteworthy when you elected your first female governor?› Ax wondered.

‹She was the first?› I asked.

‹Yes. Naomi told me.›

‹Huh. I mean, like I said, we weren't paying much attention—is it noteworthy to you? Are there female princes?›

‹In the Electorate? Yes, there have been women leaders since the days of Nesadir-Osantin-Ilshom.›

I swooped low, in what passed for an aerial double-take, once I heard who'd said that. ‹Tobias?›

‹What?› he asked. ‹I've been learning stuff.›

‹That's like, what. Ancient history, by our standards?›

‹Kind of. I'm not sure. It's just...been nice to have something else to think about.›

It was another way to get perspective, I figured. When the earth's problems were too much to take in, to reflect on the diverse scope of leaders across the galaxy. For all I knew, the light from the Andalite homeworld that we saw had only just left their sun in the days of Nesadir-something-something.

Only, Tobias' study had been borne out of a hope that the Electorate still held sway, that the Andalite military leaders would listen to reason and moderation when dealing with our planet. His silence as he flew ahead gave me no confidence that he still believed as much.

The building came into view along the coast; a swanky building, several stories tall, with a couple sports fields behind it. Down the shore, some boats had been parked along a dock—more recreation for the high-profile clients, I figured.

‹Are we sure she's here?› I asked. ‹They wouldn't just infest her if they had the chance?›

‹If she'd been taken?› Tobias pointed out. ‹And still controlled the guard? We'd know.›

‹Killed, then?›

‹Do you have any further reasons to believe this is the case?› said Ax. ‹Or can we continue with the plan?›

‹Oh, sure. Because the plan has never gotten us in trouble before.›

‹We _did_ kind of pull it off last time?› Tobias said.

Right. Last time. I liked it better when the only things we were sacrificing were sleep, automotive safety, and any semblance of sticking to the plan. We'd long since given up on those. Since my "death," as the war had heated up, it felt like we still had a lot more to lose.

‹Where are we demorphing?› I asked.

‹Still looking,› said Tobias. ‹I was hoping there would be outbuildings behind these tennis courts or somewhere, but no sign of them.›

‹Makes sense. Don't want the big-shots sneaking out back to relapse. Maybe down the driveway, then?› We couldn't get too far away, or we'd lose the thought-speak range.

‹Perhaps the parking garage.› Ax descended, indicating a grated entrance to the underground structure.

It wasn't easy flying in; we had to angle our wings awkwardly, adjusting to the darkness as we kept our ears open for any sign we were being watched. After a couple tight squeezes, we'd passed the grates, then skimmed the aisles of cars for a relatively secluded corner. The space next to a dark SUV seemed as good a place as any.

‹You first,› I told Ax. Just in case we needed firepower.

He landed and resumed his Andalite form, feathers shrinking to fur and eyestalks rising through the shadows. Still no noises. I perched on the sidewalk before demorphing as well, waiting for Ax and then Tobias to go seagull before continuing into my next morph.

Then we headed for the stairs. Time to hide in plain sight. Up one flight, the next...

‹Afternoon, Governor! I'm a big fan of your water bonds.›

Great. Now everyone's a policy wonk.

‹Erica?› Tobias called. ‹This is Governor Marco with Tobias and Ax. You're on pace to rendezvous with the real thing later on.›

‹Gotcha.› A fly on the wall zoomed forward to greet us. ‹Do we know she's the real thing?›

‹If she is not,› said Ax, ‹then I believe the saying goes that we will all have bigger problems on our hands, forehooves, talons, claws, and other collections of appendages.›

‹There's that Andalite optimism I've heard so much about,› Jessie muttered.

‹You're doing fine,› Tobias promised. ‹See you soon.›

I felt like I should add some words of wisdom. ‹Uh, maybe try not to give the governor too much grief about the water bonds, okay? She...has...›

‹Bigger problems on her appendages, yeah, yeah, we get it. Okay, see you around!› Erica called.

So there we were, wandering out of the parking garage, making the most casual escape we could hope for from the facility. If any of us needed a fix, it was Ax, greedily eying the shoreline in the hopes of fast food littering it up. I didn't share his hope—it seemed like the kind of place that kept pretty clean.

All the same, we kept walking, looking like our state's most casually-dressed head and a couple hungry gulls high above. Half-desperate to break into a run, half-relieved that we at least had a moment's respite, pushing forward.

‹...still in...got it open, but...her way to...› Erica's voice, fading out of range.

"Do we go back?" I asked under my breath. There was no sign of a conflict from inside, at least not anything loud. But what did we know?

‹They'll be okay,› said Tobias.

"Some diversion we're creating."

‹Shall I demorph?› Ax suggested. ‹That would certainly attract attention.›

"Why are you asking me? I'm not..." I trailed off. Sure, I was nobody's prince, but I didn't want to give him ideas.

"You're not what, Governor? Supposed to be outside the facilities?"

I froze. There was a man in what could have been a security guard's uniform, I guess. Some kind of weapon at his waist; human or alien, I wasn't sure.

Whatever. We'd wanted to be a diversion; now we were. "I—I was just going for a walk. I'm not..." Did anyone really working there actually believe she was on drugs? "I don't have anything on me, you can look!"

‹I see something moving on that boat,› Tobias called. ‹Looks like a couple of people. Humans. I think?›

‹Not recognizably Controllers,› said Ax. ‹Unless they're in morph.›

The guard sighed. "Turn out your...pockets?"

While we'd progressed past the leotard stage, it wasn't by much, and he didn't look at all convinced that this was any kind of an outfit for the governor out on a seaside stroll.

"Very well," he said. "In that case, come back with me."

He gripped me by the wrist, and I tried not to let my expression give me away. Out of the corner of my eye, were both of the seagulls still there? Or had one of them gotten to...

Suddenly, the guard reached for his waistband with his other hand. I grappled with him, trying to force him away. A few moments struggling for whatever weapon he possessed—then I lurched, off-balance, and tripped to the beach, seconds ahead of him.

Ax was standing over the guard's unconscious form, barely demorphed but flat of the tailblade still poised. ‹I believe this qualifies as a diversion?›

"Oh, yeah," I said, grabbing the weapon—standard-issue Dracon, and already beginning to demorph to my own body.

‹One down,› said Tobias. ‹What about the guys in the boat?›

"You two stay bird, we'll lose them in the air."

‹And they won't think it's immediately suspicious that we bail, clearly just us three, and leave the governor...where?›

"Where else can we go?"

Seagulls can't sigh, but Tobias had the ambivalence thing down pat. ‹There is another boat.›

"No. No no no. I don't do boats!"

‹You handled yourself...adequately on the yacht,› Ax reminded us.

"That was different."

‹So what's your plan?› Tobias asked.

"I don't have my own plan," I said, in my own voice, "we're Team Two, we do this together. Which...means...actually trying to outshoot them in the boat? Yeah, who came up with this plan?"

‹Let's move,› said Ax, soaring ahead to where the boat lay in wait.

‹Want to go gorilla?› Tobias asked. ‹Something that can aim.›

"How about something that can swim? Why?"

‹Better defenses?›

"More weight on a boat I'm pretty sure none of us actually know how to use?"

He ignored me, landing behind Ax, who was already starting to demorph.

I hurried to catch up with them, beginning my gorilla morph in spite of myself. If the hawk could tolerate a boat ride for as long as it took to hold them off, then so could a primate or two. Probably.

Ax turned Andalite first, bending low to check if there was anything to slash at tethering the boat to the dock. Didn't look like he'd found anything, so I hurled him the beam as he took a seat at the helm and started hacking away at whatever buttons came to hand.

‹It's a rudimentary system,› he admitted, ‹but I think I can...›

‹Yeah,› said Tobias, landing and demorphing himself, ‹move!›

There wasn't much of a point in them starting without me, so I charged the remaining distance and clambered aboard, grimacing as I tried not to rock the boat—literally (the figurative moment to turn back had long since passed). Ax passed me the gun back, still jamming feverishly at the controls. Behind us, Tobias was turning Andalite. Ironic, after all that time where we'd had to go with Earth animals to hide the fact that we weren't real Andalite warriors—now that our secrets were out, he'd decided he liked imitating Ax after all. Uncle and nephew, side by side, indistinguishable in the fray.

I took aim, and not a moment too soon. Someone was shooting a Dracon beam at us. Hork-Bajir? ‹I thought you said they weren't aliens?›

‹I thought they were wolves!› Ax replied, as the engine spurted to life and we jerked away. ‹Earth morphs...›

‹They must be inexperienced morphers,› said Tobias. ‹Probably they have Hork-Bajir morphs, they want something they can aim at.›

I shot again, and this time, nailed a Hork-Bajir—infested or morphed—in the side. It winced and doubled-over, and I aimed again for the one driving the boat. That time, I missed.

But there were more of them than there were us, and we weren't close enough to fight tail-to-blade; Ax and Tobias' morphs were useless. ‹Go small!› I called. ‹I'll hold them off!›

‹And the boat will go where?› Ax challenged.

‹Uh...›

And suddenly, another voice, in thought-speech. Not Erica's, not Jessie's, but somehow familiar. ‹Animorphs? These boats are all armed. Look in the life-jacket slot. In the back...›

‹It's called the stern,› I said, almost to myself.

‹I thought you didn't do boats?› Tobias asked, dodging another beam.

‹Just...just duck and see if there's anything there!› I called. He obliged.

‹Could this be a trap?› said Ax.

‹At this point? Anything could be a trap.› But I had to know. Something didn't add up.

‹No, they're here. Ax, take one!› Tobias called.

Ax reached out a slender Andalite hand, and the weapon passed between them. Moments later, a perpendicular beam shot forth, knocking over a Hork-Bajir.

Then Tobias was bounding up, his own weapon at the ready, and we shot again. Of course, the Yeerks were more experienced with the Dracons than us, but their control over the Hork-Bajir bodies seemed stilted, unnatural, just enough to keep us in the fight.

‹Where did these weapons come from?› Tobias asked.

‹The life-jacket slot, obviously!› I said.

‹Those bodies aren't...they morphed wolves,› said Ax. ‹Morphs! Of course! These must be the original Yeerk bodies, overcoming the morph instincts.›

‹Which means they had to leave the hosts. Who could have gone small, if they were morph-capable in their own right,› said Tobias. ‹That would explain the other advice.›

I ducked from another shot and blasted back at a Hork-Bajir on the starboard side, facing us. Ax kept firing. ‹Why would the Yeerks let the hosts go free?›

‹What are they going to do out here if they don't have water morphs? Trap themselves as bugs?› Tobias asked.

‹Wouldn't it be worth it? If they're flies, they could get back,› I said.

‹The Yeerks surely cannot allow their host bodies to acquire flying morphs for this reason,› Ax mulled. ‹Perhaps not even something that could fight its way out of a cage, even if it got killed.›

‹Yeah. I...yeah?›

‹Are you all right? I believe I can maneuver this boat farther away from them, if both of you keep up the cover fire.›

‹I...› How was it my place to pick a fight? After all we'd been through, with Visser One, Jake and Tom...I'd worked for years to make sure the battles ended the way we wanted, or at least a way we could stand. In the middle of a diversion, starting something else was a waste. Wasn't it? ‹You're the best shot. Keep it up.›

‹We all heard the message, Marco,› said Tobias, lurching as another shot grazed his morph's hindleg. ‹What's up?›

‹The thought-speech voice,› I said. ‹I...I think that was Nora.›

It wasn't my fault, I told myself. Unconvincingly. Not for the first time. She'd been targeted for her connection to my dad, and he'd been targeted because of his research—once he'd finally gotten enough of his life back together to research shortcuts through interstellar space. Me being an Animorph had nothing to do with her capture, no more than Chapman or Mr. Pardue or anyone else from school. My dad had moved on with his life—well, had it officially end behind him and reunite with my mom in a place off the map, but it was _something_. We couldn't waste our energy on trying to mount a rescue, not in the middle of our diversionary tactics, not out on a boat in the middle of the water, anywhere but there...

Tobias and Ax looked at each other with their eyestalks while their main eyes focused ahead, Tobias on shooting the morphed Yeerks and Ax adjusting the controls. I couldn't tell whether they were thought-speaking privately, just doing a silent family-bonding thing, or communicating somewhere in between—the way Elfangor had once shared with us, in pictures and flashes.

‹So,› said Tobias. ‹We go after them, yeah? Get her back?›

‹I...I can't ask you guys to do that.›

‹She's family, yeah? I mean, on a technicality, but that's what we're about.›

‹I believe this would be an appropriate example of what is known as 'taking initiative' and extending the Yeerks' inability to capture the governor,› said Ax, ‹if you are up for it.›

‹I—you guys, look, I—› Ax falteringly pointing out the Andalite homeworld to Loren, a starlit night in the valley. My mom debriefing us on pool schedules and the Vissers' movements. Tobias configuring one of Ax's spare computers to lose hilariously to Jake in a round of video games, just to cool off. And my dad, listening in fascination to a Z-Space lecture Ax was half-awake for in school, all for the low price of some microwaved pizza.

We weren't the most organized group of brothers-in-arms, Team Two, and maybe—just maybe—we were a little lacking in finesse. Occasionally. But we'd come through so much, already, and we were still fighting.

‹I really don't do boats, okay? Beyond that...if you're stupid enough to try, then yes, you know I'm in.›

‹I find this plan to be intelligent and likely to succeed. Besides, with Tobias temporarily commanding a copy of my nervous system, there is no risk of 'birdbrain' stupidity interfering with our chances.›

‹Did he just...› I trailed off.

‹Yeah, apparently Walter has been teaching him quite the supply of fresh one-liners,› said Tobias. ‹Okay, Ax-man, take us in.›

The engine sputtered again as we pivoted, still shooting Dracons when we got the chance—I tried not to wonder how long they'd hold a charge—as Ax brought us forward. We'd need to aim at the Yeerks, and hope we didn't destroy any hosts in morph, who were probably too small to see anyway.

The Yeerks at first didn't seem to realize we were approaching, only looked delighted that we were at a bad angle to shoot them at for a while. Then, they caught on. "So much for your rescue mission!" one taunted, the voice not quite a true Hork-Bajir's blend of languages.

‹Yeah, yeah,› I called back. ‹It's _ours_, the humans', actually. Nice not being called Andalite bandits. Meaning no disrespect to my Andalite friend, of course.› I couldn't tell whether the one who'd been shouting at us paused for a split-second at my use of the singular, but it didn't matter; Tobias' next shot nailed the Hork-Bajir body in the torso, and it fell back, its color melting away as it did.

‹What did I—› Tobias broke off. ‹Oh, it's demorphing?›

‹A Yeerk can survive briefly in the water, remember,› said Ax. ‹At this distance, however...›

‹Not our problem,› I said, ‹Ax, on your left—›

He looked up from the controls and ducked again as another shot came in, then reached back to the controls. By then we were close enough that it hardly mattered. The Yeerks couldn't board us yet.

But Tobias could leap forward, lashing out with the flat of his tail. Another Yeerk in Hork-Bajir morph met him, slashing with his wrist blade. A Dracon shot from Ax cut him off, but at that point Ax was getting up and ready to tailfight as well.

So I took my place by their side, and even if they were shifting their weight one way or the other, I could tell myself it was just them striking another stance and not the boat shifting beneath us. One punch, and a Hork-Bajir buckled before it could get off a shot from the Dracon beam it still clutched; another, and a second Yeerk retreated back to the controls.

Ax's tailblade seared through the air, cutting off another attack. And then, he'd boarded the other boat, Tobias close behind. I stared over, looking past the remaining Yeerks, for any sign of Nora or the other hosts in morph. I'd been surrounded by impotent hosts in countless battles at the Yeerk pool before, I told myself, their cries a blur for their own freedom with no chance for advice. What was one more?

But there was something else that made me jump over, some cry of ‹Come on!› At the time perhaps I took it for Nora's plea, but in retrospect, it could just as well have been my friends. Ax, the _aristh_ who'd grown loyal, not just to some perceived leader, but to the planet where he'd grown as a warrior and the awkward bipeds he'd chosen to defend. Tobias, who'd fluttered from home to home but who, at last, could fight alongside his _shorm_. They were waiting for me.

So I pushed forward, and felt the boat shift behind me as I left. It felt like there could be no turning back—which was still probably a stretch; the distance wasn't too far for experienced flying or swimming morphs. But either way, we had to deal with the Yeerks onboard first.

While they'd outnumbered us originally, there were only a couple left by the time I'd climbed on, and they were a little slow to control the Hork-Bajir bodies. Neither sides' Dracons were employed at point-blank distance, and if it weren't for the tiny area we were fighting in, it would have gone like any other skirmish—blades and blocks and blows and battle-morphs. Even the yacht had been a stranger fight, in the sense that I was also attempting to keep the governor with us while dodging blows. Admittedly, the bystanders we were trying to protect were human-scale. This time around, it was hard to tell if they were there at all.

But I fought—I punched one Hork-Bajir, then the next, and hoped that whatever I felt splashing me was just normal combat-induced bodily fluids, and not a wave swelling up to overwhelm us all, morphs small and large alike. And then, the last of the Yeerks was falling, hastily trying to demorph as it downspiraled into the water. By instinct I was reaching out, unsure why, I couldn't break its fall. But I was leaning, shifting my weight, and still the boat was upright.

Our boat was across the distance, not too far, but still a far cry from the mess we found ourselves standing in. Tobias quickly began to demorph, and Ax too wanted to morph briefly to heal himself. That left me, standing briefly in the gorilla morph, looking around.

I still needed a few more moments with thought-speech capacity. ‹Can anyone hear me? We—this is Marco. You're safe. The Yeerks are gone, it's just us now. We'll take you...back.› Nora didn't have much of a home left, and what if there were others? ‹Just please morph out.›

‹How do we know that?› Another voice, unfamiliar, but definitely thought-speech.

Tobias, by then hawk, hesitated. ‹I guess you don't.›

‹No, it—it's real. Try and...and remember your human body. Like they told us...›

It was Nora, and her shock was evident. Where they _were_, I couldn't tell. But she had recognized me even from there, enough to convince the others, and one by one, a host of former-hosts emerged from the bottom of the ship. A young man whose long, dark, hair fell limp behind him; he toyed with one strand, bewildered. An older woman who immediately made her way to the controls of the ship, as Ax warily stood and let her be. A few who ignored us and turned to the corresponding life-jacket compartment, looking for Dracons of their own, still afraid of the fight.

‹What could make them that small?› Tobias wondered. ‹Nothing that could fly away...were they _ants_?›

‹That's not possible,› said Ax. ‹After so long as involuntary Controllers, they would have grown weak, they could not resist the hive-mind instincts. I don't understand...›

‹I think it's the other way around,› I said. ‹After that long, what could a morph do to them? Even inside the animal's brain, they'd fight, to be free. Anything was better than that.›

And then I demorphed, the gorilla's body shrinking down as I took its place. Not a governor or a leader, just me, Marco, a teenage boy making awkward eye contact with his stepmom.

"Thank you," she whispered, repeated, chokingly; then she was up and running but I never felt the boat would give way, only froze as she flung her hug on me, sobbing. The other freed humans must have been confused, but of all the stilted welcome-to-the-family hugs, I'd seen worse.

I didn't know how to acknowledge her, didn't know where we'd go from there, but I could see Ax listening to sailing directions behind me as Tobias plotted a course. Somewhere on the mainland, the governor was safe with Erica's team. "Just...just doing my job?" I ventured.

It was enough to get her to pull away, still almost in hysterics. "Like you're old enough to work!"

I tried again. "It's what we're here for?"

We'd told plenty of lies, the three of us—to parents and teachers, aunts and uncles and military commanders. But for once, it felt good to be moving closer to the truth.

* * *

><p>The title is from an Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet, which begins:<p>

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare.  
>Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace,<br>And lay them prone upon the earth and cease  
>To ponder on themselves, the while they stare<br>At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere  
>In shapes of shifting lineage; let geese<br>Gabble and hiss, but heroes seek release  
>From dusty bondage into luminous air.<p> 


End file.
